BigCommerce and Squarespace are popular selling platforms that offer a wide range of features to help businesses create and manage online stores. Though they share some similar features, such as customizable templates and the ability to sell products online, they still differ a lot.
Via this article, we will offer an ultimate comparison of BigCommerce vs Squarespace so that you may know which one suits your business best. Keep reading to get:
- Overview of BigCommerce and Squarespace
- All features compared of BigCommerce vs Squarespace
- Some frequently asked questions about Squarespace and BigCommerce
Let’s get in!
Overview of BigCommerce and Squarespace
What is BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is a leading eCommerce platform that helps businesses create and manage online stores. With BigCommerce, businesses can design and customize their online store, manage products, and process and fulfill orders. Additionally, the platform offers a range of tools and integrations to help businesses grow their online sales and improve their customers’ shopping experiences.
What is Squarespace?
Squarespace is a popular website building and hosting platform that provides users with tools to create beautiful and professional websites without the need for coding or design skills. Moreover, Squarespace also provides hosting, eCommerce functionalities, and other tools for online business, making it a popular choice for individuals and small businesses looking to establish a strong online presence.
In the next section, we will provide you with an ultimate comparison of BigCommerce vs Squarespace. So, stay tuned!
BigCommerce vs Squarespace – Key Features Compared
Ease of use
Squarespace vs BigCommerce are both user-friendly platforms that offer intuitive interfaces and tools for creating and managing websites.
BigCommerce ease of use
If you choose a method that is more practical with more control over the design and functionality of your eCommerce site, BigCommerce might be a better fit. BigCommerce has a steeper learning curve compared to Squarespace, as it provides more advanced features and customization options for eCommerce. However, once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier to use and offers much more flexibility.
Squarespace ease of use
If you’re looking for a platform that’s easy to use and allows you to create a stunning website with minimal effort, Squarespace might be the way to go. Squarespace is known for its ease of use and intuitive interface, making it an ideal choice for people new to website building or those who need more technical skills. With its drag-and-drop interface, it’s easy to create a professional-looking website without knowing how to code.
Squarespace is definitely easier to use with a simple dashboard.
Pricing
In terms of pricing, BigCommerce and Squarespace offer different pricing models and features at different price points. Below, we will show you a general comparison of their pricing plans.
BigCommerce pricing
Currently, there are 4 distinct BigCommerce pricing plans as crafted below and you will know how much is BigCommerce:
- Standard Plan: Starts at $29.95 per month and includes basic features for setting up an online store. However, there will be no abandoned cart recovery tool.
- Plus Plan: Starts at $79.95 per month and includes more advanced features, such as gift cards and abandoned cart recovery. This is the most popular BigCommerce plan as a “sweet spot” with all comprehensive features to get the most out of selling such as an abandoned cart recovery tool and customer grouping/segmentation.
- Pro Plan: Starts at $299.95 per month and includes even more advanced features, such as custom SSL and real-time carrier shipping.
The BigCommerce Enterprise plan will have custom pricing. You may contact BigCommere sales to get all support tailored to your needs.
As you are using BigCommerce, there will be no transaction fee applied in any BigCommerce plans, which lets you optimize your revenues! Another great news! By choosing the Plus or Pro plans and opting for an annual payment, you can save up to an amazing 10%!
Squarespace pricing
There are 4 pricing plans for Squarespace, which is discussed in more detail below and you will know how much Squarespace cost:
- Personal Plan: Starts at $23 per month and includes basic website building and hosting features.
- Business Plan (the most popular plan): Starts at $33 per month and includes eCommerce features, such as the ability to sell products online and access to advanced website analytics.
- Basic Squarespace Commerce Plan: Starts at $36 per month and includes all of the eCommerce features of the Business Plan, as well as the ability to sell products in-person and through social media.
- Advanced Commerce Plan: Comes at $65 per month and includes all of the eCommerce features of the Basic Plan, as well as advanced shipping and discounting options.
Unlike BigCommerce, Squarespace charges a fee of 3% for sales through its Business Plan. However, as you upgrade to Basic Commerce and Advanced Commerce plans, there will be no transaction fee applied!
Squarespace comes with a more affordable pricing plan. However, if you want to access more eCommerce website functionalities, you may want to go for BigCommerce.
Themes & Templates
When it comes to themes and templates, both BigCommerce and Squarespace offer a range of options for designing your website. Below, we will give you a general comparison:
BigCommerce themes
BigCommerce offers a range of professionally designed themes, both free and paid. Currently, there are 250+ BigCommerce themes available on the BigCommerce theme store. All these themes are customizable and include a variety of styles and layouts, making it easy to find one that suits your business.
BigCommerce Stencil empowers you with greater control over the design and functionality of your store, leveraging industry-leading technology, design standards, and SEO best practices. With the Stencil theme engine, developers can craft captivating storefronts that captivate shoppers and optimize conversions across all devices.
This can be both a positive and a negative, as it requires a bit more technical knowledge to customize your store to your liking.
Squarespace templates
Squarespace is known for its visually vivid templates, designed to be easy to customize and use. The templates are optimized for different types of websites, including portfolios, blogs, and eCommerce sites. Currently, there are 130+ website templates available on the Squarespace template store. They are all user-friendly, with a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create a professional-looking website without needing to know how to code.
BigCommerce outshines Squarespace in the arena of templates, boasting a larger selection of website templates and customizability. Therefore, BigCommerce emerges as the clear winner in this regard.
Apps & Extensions
When it comes to apps and extensions, both BigCommerce and Squarespace offer tools to enhance the functionality of your website.
BigCommerce apps
BigCommerce has a large selection of apps and extensions available through BigCommerce App Store. It offers over 1500 integrations and eCommerce apps, including social media platforms, payment gateways, and other eCommerce tools.
For example, you may capture more customers on social channels with Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram integrations. Or, you can simply add “BigCommerce Buy Now” buttons on blogs, email, social media, etc. to effectively drive conversion.
Squarespace extensions
Squarespace’s App Market is known for its user-friendly interface, making it easy to find the tools you need and integrate them into your website. However, Squarespace offers a limited selection of integrations and extensions through its App Market. There are only 31 extensions available on the apps market, and that falls far behind BigCommerce in quantity.
While Squarespace’s selection of integrations is more limited compared to BigCommerce, the platform still offers a number of useful tools to enhance the functionality of your website.
Needless to say, BigCommerce is the winner when it provides a larger selection of integrations and extensions compared to Squarespace.
SEO & Marketing
SEO and marketing are essential for any business when choosing an eCommerce platform.
BigCommerce SEO & Marketing
BigCommerce offers a number of SEO-friendly features, including customizable URLs, meta descriptions, and product descriptions. The platform also offers a blog feature, allowing you to create and publish blog posts to help improve your website’s search engine rankings.
In terms of marketing, BigCommerce is famous for built-in features so that you can unleash the full potential of your business with top-tier marketing solutions. These are just a few of the outstanding features provided by BigCommerce:
- Employ customer segmentation for more effective message targeting.
- Enhance your content marketing with a fully integrated blog.
- Enable social sharing on products and purchases.
- Harness the potential of Google Shopping to entice new customers.
- Reach out to customers effectively with email marketing.
- Re-engage previous customers using the abandoned cart saver.
- Effortlessly integrate with Facebook Ads using the BigCommerce extension.
Here’s an example of how abandoned cart emails are set up for a new BigCommerce store, simplifying customer retention and facilitating marketing efforts.
Moreover, via BigCommerce’s App Store, you may also find a number of marketing tools, such as email marketing apps (Omnisend or Klaviyo) and social media integrations (Facebook and Instagram), making it easy to promote your products and reach a wider audience.
Squarespace SEO & Marketing
Squarespace offers a number of built-in SEO features, including customizable URLs, meta descriptions, and image alt tags. The platform also offers a blogging feature, allowing you to create and publish blog posts to help improve your website’s search engine rankings.
Squarespace offers various marketing features to help businesses promote their websites, such as email campaigns, social media integrations, and analytics. With Squarespace Email Campaigns, users can design and send professional-looking newsletters to their subscribers. The platform also integrates with social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, making it easy to share content and engage with followers. Squarespace’s SEO tools help optimize website content for search engines, and the analytics feature provides insights into website traffic and visitor behavior.
It’s a draw between BigCommerce vs Squarespace in the battle of SEO & marketing features, as they both offer robust functions.
eCommerce features
When it comes to eCommerce, both BigCommerce and Squarespace offer a range of features to help you run and manage your online store. However, there are some differences between BigCommerce vs Squarespace regarding the types of eCommerce features offered.
BigCommerce eCommerce features
BigCommerce offers a comprehensive range of eCommerce features. With BigCommerce, users can customize their store design, manage products and inventory, process payments, and track shipments. BigCommerce supports over 65 local payment gateways (PayPal, BigCommerce AfterPay) and over 250 shipping carriers, which is great for eCommerce store owners to scale up business.
BigCommerce offers an all-encompassing suite of eCommerce features, providing unparalleled scalability, unlimited usage, and the flexibility to expand your business with:
- Product variants that can be easily customized with no restrictions on products, bandwidth, storage, or staff accounts
- Seamless integration with marketplaces, allowing for hassle-free and automatic syncing
- Multichannel selling capabilities, enabling you to sell across multiple storefronts and currencies with various payment options
- The ability to sell internationally with support for multichannel integration, multiple storefronts, and multi-currency transactions
Additionally, BigCommerce provides robust management tools, including inventory, order, and product management, as well as professional analytics and reporting for detailed insights into your business. Moreover, BigCommerce facilitates a smooth checkout experience with high-performance APIs and built-in fraud protection to help prevent chargebacks and other forms of fraudulent activity.
Squarespace eCommerce features
Squarespace, on the other hand, is primarily a website builder that also provides eCommerce features so the eCommerce functions may somehow be limited. Squarespace supports a more limited selection of payment gateways (only 3 providers: PayPal, Stripe and Square).
What is more, in terms of inventory management, Squarespace’s features are more basic. While users can set up stock levels and receive notifications when inventory levels are running low, Squarespace does not offer the ability to manage inventory across multiple warehouses or create custom product options.
For businesses seeking to leverage cutting-edge eCommerce functionalities, BigCommerce undoubtedly stands out as the superior option.
Scalability
Though the key to determining which platform is easier to scale up your business with will largely depend on your specific needs, we can still easily find out which one is better to scale up your business. Let’s find out the answer right below!
BigCommerce scalability
BigCommerce is known for being a highly scalable platform, and it offers a range of features to help you manage your store as it grows. One of the key benefits of BigCommerce is its flexibility, as it allows you to customize your store with a range of themes and templates, and provides access to a range of customization tools and APIs. This means that as your business grows, you can easily modify and upgrade your store to accommodate the changing needs of your business.
Squarespace scalability
Squarespace is also a scalable platform, offering a range of features to help you manage your store as it grows. It is known for its user-friendly interface and simple design tools, making it easy for you to create and manage your store. However, Squarespace is limited in terms of customization, as it does not offer the same level of customization as BigCommerce.
Though Squarespace also lets you customize and generate the API key, it’s still not as customizable as BigCommerce. This means that as your business grows, you may find it harder to modify and upgrade your store to accommodate the changing needs of your business.
When it comes to the ability to scale up, BigCommerce is the clear winner.
Security
When it comes to security, both BigCommerce and Squarespace take it seriously and offer a range of security features to protect your website and customer data.
BigCommerce security
BigCommerce is a secure eCommerce platform that is PCI compliant, which means it meets the security standards set by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This helps to protect your customer data and credit card information from security breaches and other threats.
BigCommerce uses SSL encryption to secure all data transmitted between the customer and the website, which helps to prevent hacking and other security threats. The platform also includes a range of other security features, such as two-factor authentication and IP blocking, to further enhance the security of your store.
In addition, BigCommerce offers a range of integrations with third-party security tools and services, such as site lock and security certificates, to help you further protect your website and customer data.
Squarespace security
Squarespace is also a secure eCommerce platform that uses SSL encryption to protect customer data and credit card information from security threats. The platform is PCI compliant and meets the security standards set by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
Squarespace includes a range of security features, such as two-factor authentication and daily backups, to help protect your website and customer data. The platform also offers a security center where you can monitor your website and make changes to your security settings.
Squarespace’s App Market also offers a limited selection of security tools and extensions that can help you enhance the security of your online store. However, the platform’s selection of security tools may not be as comprehensive or flexible as the security features offered by BigCommerce.
Although both platforms comply with PCI compliance and incorporate SSL encryption, BigCommerce surpasses its competitors by offering a more expansive suite of security features and integrations.
Support
BigCommerce vs Squarespace, both offer comprehensive support to help you with any questions or issues you may have when using their platform.
BigCommerce support
BigCommerce offers 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat. This means you can get help at any time, no matter what your issue may be. In addition, BigCommerce provides a wealth of resources and guides, including an extensive knowledge base and video tutorials, to help you get the most out of the platform. BigCommerce also offers a supportive community where you can connect with other users and ask questions or share your experiences.
Squarespace support
Squarespace offers support 24/7 via email and live chat. While this may be convenient for some users, it may not be as accessible as the phone support offered by BigCommerce. Squarespace also provides a range of resources and guides, including a knowledge base and video tutorials, to help you get started and troubleshoot any issues you may have. Squarespace offers a supportive community where you can connect with other users and ask questions or share your experiences.
BigCommerce offers a more comprehensive support experience, with 24/7 phone support and a range of resources and guides.
BigCommerce vs Squarespace – FAQs
- Does Squarespace work with BigCommerce?
No, Squarespace and BigCommerce are separate platforms and do not have integration or direct connection. Squarespace is a website builder and eCommerce platform, while BigCommerce is a standalone eCommerce platform.
- Which platform is better for SEO, BigCommerce or Squarespace?
Both BigCommerce and Squarespace have features that can help with SEO, but BigCommerce offers more advanced SEO options, such as custom URLs and editing page titles/descriptions.
- Does Squarespace charge transaction fees?
Yes, Squarespace credit card fees are a 3% commission on sales made through its Business Plan. However, there will be no transaction fee if you upgrade to the Basic Commerce or Advanced Commerce subscriptions!
Final Thoughts
Via this article, we clearly see that BigCommerce is a more robust and scalable eCommerce platform with advanced features, customization options, and integrations, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. Squarespace, on the other hand, offers an intuitive website builder with limited eCommerce functionality, ideal for small businesses or individuals looking for a simple online store. Ultimately, the choice depends on your business needs and goals.
Check out our Retailer Blog and the Facebook community for more eCommerce growth hacks!
Happy selling!
